20 Hospitalized After Chemical Spill

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP) — Nearly 20 employees of a North Carolina county have gone to the hospital for evaluation after a toxic dry cleaning chemical spill at the county jail.

The Winston-Salem Journal reports (http://bit.ly/1kOSDob ) that Deputy County Manager Damon Sanders-Pratt said not all the workers exposed to the chemical odor Monday felt ill. But he said the county sent them all to Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center as a precaution.

Sanders-Pratt said one person vomited after exposure to the odor from the chemical, which he identified as perchloroethylene.

The spill occurred below the floor where inmates are held, and Sanders-Pratt said the area has been closed off. He said building maintenance workers tried to move a dry cleaning machine, which had a label saying it was empty as of 1998. When workers disconnected it, fluid came out.